As many had predicted, the clash of Jeremy Nicolle and Jamie Blondel proved to be the closest of the quarter-finals and it was a high-quality contest to boot.
There was little to choose between the two previous winners of the event, with Blondel edging ahead early on before Nicolle turned the tables to establish the narrowest of leads at the turn.
They were back to all-square by the time they reached the 13th and, so closely matched were they, it was on that hole that a rare error proved to be pivotal.
With both having taken relief from the cromlech, Nicolle safely found the green with his second whereas Blondel thinned his approach shot through the back, with his ball scuttling along well-trodden ground to finish in an awkward spot 20 yards from the putting surface.
His aggressive practice strokes ahead of hitting his third shot emphasised just how annoyed Blondel was with himself, and although he came within a whisker of redeeming himself with a long par putt that so nearly dropped, Nicolle did all he needed to win the hole by lagging his birdie putt up to the hole side to take the lead again.
There may have been five holes still to play, but Nicolle was faultless from there on in, hardly giving Blondel a sniff of a chance to restore parity.
However, there was still the opportunity for Blondel to demonstrate his trademark short-game prowess on the 17th green where he confidently rolled in a 12ft putt for a half in threes to take the match down the last with Nicolle already guaranteed his birdie having finished just a yard short of the green with a fairway wood off the tee.
At the last, both scared the hole with their putts for a two, but neither dropped and Blondel’s race was run whereas Nicolle heads into the semi-finals playing really solid golf and with another big scalp to his name.
He will now face his partner from this month’s Elite Foursomes Championship in Rory McKenna, who could only admire the way in which Roland Mills started their quarter-final like a train to go 3 up through four holes before fighting back in superb fashion to claim an ultimately convincing 4 & 3 win.
In the top half of the draw, Jayden Tucknott won by the same margin against CJ Elmy to move within one win of reaching his second Island final and he will now face the four-time champion Danny Blondel, who overcame Dave Jeffery and a relatively cold putter over the full distance yesterday.
Island Men’s Championship
Quarter-final results
J Tucknott beat C Elmy 4 & 3; D Blondel beat D Jeffery 2 up; R McKenna beat R Mills 4 & 3; J Nicolle beat J Blondel 1 up.
Today’s semi-finals
McKenna v Nicolle, 4.50pm; Tucknott v D Blondel, 5pm
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